Chinese newspaper made a surprise comment when U23 Vietnam won U20 Korea

China’s Sun News newspaper on the morning of April 23 had an article commenting on the match between U23 Vietnam vs U20 Korea with the title: “0-1, the Korean youth team also failed miserably against U23 Vietnam, is the Korean team as bad as China U23? What is the truth?”.

According to the author of this article, the latest victory of coach Park Hang-seo’s teachers and students at Hang Day Stadium on the evening of April 22 was not surprising and nothing impressive:

“In a friendly match, the Korean U20 team lost 0-1 to U23 Vietnam. This is surprising to some fans because they think why a young team in a country with the leading football background in Asia like Korea can lose to U23 Vietnam in the same way that China U23 failed. ? Where is the truth?

In this match, both the Vietnamese and Korean teams played with young teams, not the national team. There is a clear age difference between the two sides. While Korea only sent the U19 team, Vietnam is the U23 group, the average difference is 4 years old.

If with the national team, a team with an average age of about 25 plays against a team with an average age of about 29, the difference is relatively small. But the match between a U19 team and a U23 team is very different.

Moreover, with Korea’s U19 generation, besides some players who have just followed the professional path, there are some other players who are still considering whether to follow the professional path or not. Compared to them with the U23 generation, there is clearly still a big gap. Although the Korean U19 has a better body, the difference in experience is relatively large. Therefore, the fact that the Korean U19 team lost to U23 Vietnam is understandable, nothing terrible.”

In addition to mentioning the victory of U23 Vietnam against the Korean youth team, the Sun News site also mentioned the role of coach Park Hang-seo:

“Of course, we must acknowledge the progress of Vietnamese football. The Vietnamese national team was also able to beat China in the World Cup qualifiers and they are still trying to catch up with the top continents. The fact that Vietnamese teams toppled stronger teams is perhaps not too surprising. With the Korean U19 team because of 1 draw and 1 0-1 loss against U23 Vietnam, it can also be considered as completing the task.

Vietnamese football is still developing the Korean wave. Mr. Park Hang-seo is a Korean and the Vietnamese teams are also actively friendly with the Korean side. Obviously, Mr. Park is a key figure in the rise of Vietnamese football today, possibly even the founder of Vietnamese football.”